News:

Due to a technical issue, some recently uploaded pictures have been lost. We are investigating why this happened but the issue has been resolved so that future uploads should be safe.  You can also Modify your post (MORE...) and re-upload the pictures in your post.

Main Menu

Who mentioned Ft Devens?

Started by cadillacmike68, December 19, 2017, 04:25:03 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

cadillacmike68

Who mentioned Ft Devens in a post mentioning being there in 59-60? My dad was there, at that same time and that's always been a small post.
Regards,
"Cadillac" Mike

jaxops

I lived in North Brookfield when teaching NROTC at the College of the Holy Cross (1986-1988) and had to take the kids there on occasion.  It was the "closest" military hospital which was over an hour and a half to get to in the middle of the woods.  I heard in the late 1990s it became a federal prison.
1970 Buick Electra Convertible
1956 Cadillac Series 75 Limousine
1949 Cadillac Series 75 Imperial Limousine
1979 Lincoln Continental
AACA, Cadillac-LaSalle Club #24591, ASWOA

Barry M Wheeler #2189

Hi, I was there in the fall of 1959-60 for advanced training with the ASA. My wife and I lived in Ayuer. (Ayer)
(That's how DownEasterners say it.) When I first got there, guys were talking about going to Woosta' on pass, and I couldn't find any place like that on the map. Finally figured out that they were talking about Worchester.  Never did get to go through all the flavors at the big ice cream drive-in just outside of town. We found one we liked and only got that one flavor.

I drove Gay into Boston to take her RN exam. Got off the expressway and drove all the way around town trying to find the place she was to go to. When we finally got there it was only a few blocks away from where we'd gotten off the road in the first place.

It's funny how memory is. I can't remember at all her making the arrangements for the test, nor picking her up the next day. (I must have, I still have her...)

Talking about accents, my choir director's daughter has moved to NH, and I asked her this summer when she was going to start talking like she came from the north east. She grinned and said, "I'm still a Hoosier."
Barry M. Wheeler #2189


1981 Cadillac Seville
1991 Cadillac Seville

Bob Hoffmann CLC#96

Barry,
What does ASA stand for?? It rings a bell from years ago!!
Bob
1968 Eldorado slick top ,white/red interior
2015 Holden Ute HSV Maloo red/black interior.
             
Too much fun is more than you can have.

cadillacmike68

Quote from: Barry M Wheeler #2189 on December 19, 2017, 10:47:06 AM
Hi, I was there in the fall of 1959-60 for advanced training with the ASA. My wife and I lived in Ayuer. (Ayer)
(That's how DownEasterners say it.) When I first got there, guys were talking about going to Woosta' on pass, and I couldn't find any place like that on the map. Finally figured out that they were talking about Worchester.  Never did get to go through all the flavors at the big ice cream drive-in just outside of town. We found one we liked and only got that one flavor.

I drove Gay into Boston to take her RN exam. Got off the expressway and drove all the way around town trying to find the place she was to go to. When we finally got there it was only a few blocks away from where we'd gotten off the road in the first place.

It's funny how memory is. I can't remember at all her making the arrangements for the test, nor picking her up the next day. (I must have, I still have her...)

Talking about accents, my choir director's daughter has moved to NH, and I asked her this summer when she was going to start talking like she came from the north east. She grinned and said, "I'm still a Hoosier."

OK so it was you Barry.

That would be Worcester (no "h"). And the old Pinecroft dairy is still there. They did have great ice cream, but there was one a bit further away up off of Rt 12 past West Boylston and the big Wachusset reservoir called MountainView Farms that had even better ice cream. I think the old barn still exists, but I haven't been up there in years, and it now appears to be a horse boarding farm. Maybe it always was.

Boston. the streets look like someone tossed a bowl of spaghetti on the floor and said - here's the street map. I could never easily find anything in Boston.

So what was ASA again? I can't remember what that stood for, not having been born yet in 1959.
Regards,
"Cadillac" Mike

Barry M Wheeler #2189

Army Security Agency. Even at this late date, I can't tell you what I did. The ASA recruiter in Indy was a Master Sgt and went to our church. He knew I was enlisting to keep out of the infantry, so he said to try the ASA. "Can't tell you much about it, except you should like it."

Well, I did, and Berlin was a beautiful city. We lived (You had to wait forever for Govt. Quarters) in Zehlendorf which was an upscale suburb that escaped much of the bombing as the Allies wanted it after the war for their own use. One exception was a Post Office building across the street from where we lived that had one end with just a flat end instead of the mansard roof at the other end. Our landlady told us that the stick of bombs hit during a birthday party for her son. Two more hit nearby. One in the side yard of a house a couple of streets away, and the last took part of the front of a house on Machnower Strasse (where I caught the bus) . Good duty. I wish I'd have shipped the double back light VW I drove back to the states.

I saw one of the four door VWs and one of the roadsters with the disappearing top. Our landlady's son had one of the "baby coach" VW convertibles painted like the one in the recent Coke commercial. (Dark brown with cream sides.)
Barry M. Wheeler #2189


1981 Cadillac Seville
1991 Cadillac Seville

cadillacmike68

^^ Makes sense, and that's what i thought is meant. There was an adjunct of the Army MI school at Devens, while the main school was in Arizona. There was also an SF group there where my dad was. In the early 90s, the Army built a huge super secure building because they were going to move the entire MI school to Devens, but they didn't plan on the congressional base closing deciding that Devens was going to be De-activated. There's still a small stump for Army Reserve and NG, but the rest of it is all gone. Nice waste of taxpayer$$$.

Anyway, good talking here on the forums.
Regards,
"Cadillac" Mike

Bob Hoffmann CLC#96

Quote from: Barry M Wheeler #2189 on December 20, 2017, 11:19:43 AM
Army Security Agency. Even at this late date, I can't tell you what I did. The ASA recruiter in Indy was a Master Sgt and went to our church. He knew I was enlisting to keep out of the infantry, so he said to try the ASA. "Can't tell you much about it, except you should like i
Barry,
I was supposed to get into it in about 1958. Me & another young guy both flunked the physical. The Sargent was very disappointed & went back to the doctors again. They still said no. I'm sure it would have changed my life in a BIG way. I was going to Germany also. Might have seen you there. LOL!
Bob
1968 Eldorado slick top ,white/red interior
2015 Holden Ute HSV Maloo red/black interior.
             
Too much fun is more than you can have.

Brad Ipsen CLC #737

We are getting off subject here but for those interested here is a what the ASA did as stated by Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Security_Agency


Some high lights.

Composed of soldiers trained in military intelligence, the ASA was tasked with monitoring and interpreting military communications of the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, and their allies and client states around the world. The ASA was directly subordinate to the National Security Agency and all major field stations had NSA technical representatives present.

The ASA, during the majority of the years of its existence, was largely a "Cold War" operation. ASA enlisted troops were usually recruited from those scoring in the top 2% of scores in aptitude tests given during initial induction.

ASA specialists and linguists were recruited from high-scoring enlistees or inductees. Specialists in different MOS were trained at Arlington Hall Station, Fort Devens Massachusetts and the Joint Service Cryptologic Center and School at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas

These occupations, which required a top secret clearance with Special Intelligence/crypto special clearances, were essential to U.S. Cold War efforts. ASA units usually operated in four groups called 'tricks', using revolving shifts to provide coverage twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. ASA troops were not allowed to discuss their operations with outsiders â€" in fact, they could not talk among themselves about their duties unless they were in a secure location. Even today, some of the missions still cannot be discussed. ASA personnel processing out of sensitive operations were debriefed and signed a document specifying a thirty-year elapsed time before they could discuss what they had done or observed. Note: Information other than XGDS (eXempt from General Declassification Schedule) is automatically declassified after 30 years.

There is also a reading list at the end of the entry (plus many others on the NSA) that if read, Barry may find out about stuff that was going on that he didn't know about.
Brad Ipsen
1940 Cadillac 60S
1938 Cadillac 9039
1940 Cadillac 6267
1940 LaSalle 5227
1949 Cadillac 6237X
1940 Cadillac 60S Limo

cadillacmike68

Regards,
"Cadillac" Mike

Barry M Wheeler #2189

Since this thread has gone hither and yon, I'll add a car-related incident... One of the guys in the unit ended up with a 1937 (?) Maybach touring sedan. (Four door convertible.) Black of course, V-12 possibly, and it had snap on velveteen maroon upholstery to go over the door panels to protect the leather from jack boots scuffing it. I think he paid $700 or so for the car. He didn't have it too long. There was a LT in the MP company next door that had a mint white BMW roadster (late thirties) with hood straps as well. There was a Mercedes 300 pale green convertible coupe that "lived" on Finkenstein Allee that I walked past on the times that I walked home before I got the VW. Our kaserne had the second largest indoor pool in the world. It had been the home of the Leiberstandte Adolph Hitler unit and was renamed Andrews Barracks. Hitler had the pool built in 1936 as an alternative site for the Olympics (In case it rained.) It was three meters deep at the shallow end and possibly ten meters deep under the diving area. That may have been a war story as the Olympic area was next to the British unit clear across town. We went there to swim in their pool at times and go to the movies. (You had to stand to attention when they played "God Save The Queen" before the show started.) One last story. When the Wall went up and Kennedy sent the Battle Group in to "protect" us, Ed Sullivan brought his TV show over. We went and our seats were up under the eaves in Kongress Hall and the new troops down in front of the stage. Louis Armstrong was there and the best we got to see of him was his white handkerchief. And what ticked us off the most was Connie Francis stooping down to sing "Where the Boys Are" to one of the new troopers. We finally did get quarters on the top floor of one of two "towers" that are still there. A few years ago, Lars Kneller went to Berlin and I asked him to take pictures of our old home. They've paved the street now. It was packed dirt when we lived there. "A long, long time ago in a galaxie that was far, far away..."
Barry M. Wheeler #2189


1981 Cadillac Seville
1991 Cadillac Seville

6262

1962 Cadillac Series 62
1965 Pontiac Bonneville